GRAND Canyon NPS Closes Deer Creek Narrows to Visitation
Uberuaga strikes again:
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Both non-commercial and commercial river trips are being told at the
Lees Ferry participant orientation meetings, prior to launching on
Colorado River trips, that the Deer Creek narrows is closed to public
visitation. The "narrows" is a winding, water sculpted section of Deer
Creek drainage below the area known as "the patio" and above the Deer
Creek Falls.
No one is allowed to enter that area for recreational or other purposes.
The falls are also closed to rappelling.
It seems that the area was closed without any prior public notification
or hearing. Wally Rist, President of the Grand Canyon Private Boaters
Association, has been working to discover the rationale behind the
sudden closure of the narrows to public visitation. As Rist points out,
the area has been visited by explorers, river runners and hikers since
Canyon visitation began more than 143 years ago, with virtually no impact.
Although there has been no definitive reason given, and no official
announcement of the closure other than at the Lees Ferry orientation
talk, it's believed that safety concerns and protection of culturally
sensitive sites influenced the decision to close the narrows.
GCPBA President Rist has written to GCNP Superintendent Dave Uberuaga
asking for clarification of the rule and an explanation as to why this
closure took on such sudden importance, questioning the lack of public
participation in the process and asking for the NPS to reconsider their
action.
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More on Uberuaga:
http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/a...t-227523.html&
From that link:
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Crystal Mountain borders MRNP and it was Uberuaga who tried to force Crystal to close their boundaries after nearly 40 years of open boundary policy. This was done during the Crystal Master Development PLan overseen by the Forest Cervix.
While Crystal and the Forest Cervix (your tax dollars) spent millions doing studies, evaluating policies, gathering and analyzing data and going through a public permitting process, Uberuaga tried to, at the last moment, slide in the closure provision for every one of the 6 alternatives in the Final MDP.
When a bunch of us who had been involved in the MDP reviews read the final alternatives and found the closure clauses, we filed an injunction on the MDP to stop and force meetings with the FS to find out what was going on. At this point it was reveeal that MRNP (under the Department of Interiors, Naional Parks system) had in fact forced the Forest Cervix (under The Dept of Agriculture) to quietly add in these requirements without any public input.
A meeting was called in which Uberuaga only participated via phone and when asked where the closure came from, he simple said he "felt that skiing was bad for the park".
When the Forest Cervix requires all the processes and study for the MDP, input from citizen groups, Indian tribes, even treehugging nitwits like the Crystal Conservation Coalition (you people suck) which cost millions of dollars and lots of time, everyone in the room was dumbfounded at the puerile audacity of that clown.
There's lots more about Uberuaga being sent to Yosemite as a punishment for this land deal in lieu of proecution (the prosecutor said their case load was full due to lack of funding and they didn't have the resources to prosecute him). There, he he completely mismanaged a controlled burn which went wild and burned several thousand acres in Yosemite. It's all in public record.
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The fact that Uberuaga has any kind of public job is a testament to why bureaucracies fail. Corruption, mismanagement and sly dealings have landed him where he is rather than out of a job.
